Home made Hard Apple Cider

[SquatchWorks]

The wife went to the Bellingham Community Co-op and bought 2 1gal jugs of Organic Apple cider, its Unfiltered, pasturized, with NO preservatives and Its unfiltered!!!


So, I was thinking out loud to my wife about making some hard cider... I did some research and This stuff is 2nd only to fresh squeezed from the press.

I went down to the brew store, and got some champagne yeast, #6.5 stopper, and an airlock.

I added 1/3 of the yeast, put a stopper and airlock on, waited a week and BAM!!!!!! IT WORKED!!!!

HAHA^^^ I dident mean the above pics to do that!!! it just happened! it looks like one pic!

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[EZLivin]

Yup. And now you know the secret to circumventing prohibition, or, beating excessive taxes on alcoholic beverages

We used 5-gal plastic water cans in Riyadh. Filled them with grape juice, sugar, yeast, and left them for a few weeks. Same thing with non-alcoholic beer. Funny thing was the local supermarket was set up so that all the necessary items were on the same isle.

 

[Jamie6.5]

Now put that in a large plastic tub and stick it in the freezer.
When it's frozen to a slushy consistency, pour it through a strainer, and separate out the slush.
The liquid is now apple jack, and it will kick some azz!

 

[Wallygator]

If its too dry, you can always stop fermentation and back sweeten it with more apple juice, to taste. If you put it in the fridge for a week after fermentation is done, the yeast and stuff should fall to the bottom of the jug nicely.


wg

 

[jdub75]

How does it taste? We LOVE hard cider in this household...have thought about making some. Those Hornsby's 6 packs get 'spensive!

 

[SquatchWorks]

It tastes GREAT!!!! The yeast does drop down, and I do syphon rack it over to clear it up much like beer. The cider is actually cloudy like that when we buy it, because its "unfiltered." but there is sediment at the bottom with the yeast as well.

Im going to add a little table sugar to it, about 2TBS and try and slowly bring the Alc. up each batch untill it is a good mix of sweet/ alcohol/ carbonation.

One thing I did notice, is it was still VERY VERY fizzy, infact, when I got to the halfway mark, my syphon hose lost syphon from fizz 3 times in a row, so I had to pour the rest. I will wait a few more days next time before I stop fermentation. I dont want to convert all the sugar to alc. it still needs to be sweet, but I guess post #4 is right, I could always back sweeten it.

The 1st batch I'm guessing was about 3.5-4.5% Alc by Vol. but I only have a hydrometer for hard alc. it starts at 15% and goes to 100% (dont ask me why I have one)

COST:

Its $5.99 a gal (and I get the cool glass jugs to keep) It costs me 99c for the stopper, and $3 for the airlock. I use champange yeast at .99c a pack, and I can do from 3-5gal form a pack. SO its going to cost about $105 for 15 gal keg. (I did the math for 16gal for any spillage/ or sediment that gets tossed)
Thats cheaper than bud light!!!
and WAY cheaper than Mac and Jack's!!!! (not as good as mac and jack's)
it tastes better then Hornsbys (we like hornsbys)

Cost compared to hornbys 6 packs is (26.5 12oz 6-packs in a 15gal keg) 6-packs cost $7.99 each


15gal of store bought hornsbys in 6 packs will cost $211.74!!!! vs $105 for my Cider

 

[jdub75]

I may just have to convert our guest bedroom into a cider distillery! Thanks for all the info....and just when I thought I had enuf hobbies too!

 

[mxitman]

I brew my own beer and did a batch of hard cider 2 years ago for the first time for Christmas presents. I bought 6 gallons of unfiltered/unpasteurized cider from a local apple orchard for $6 a gallon. I added 2 lbs of brown sugar to the mix, heated it until 180 degrees to kill everything, once it cooled to 85 I added the champagne yeast and then waited. I also took a before and after reading to determine alcohol level, it turned out to be about 18% and is very strong but tastes great. I used a mix of apple types for flavor. I ended up with so much from that batch that I still have about 4 liters left.

 

[ajf1]

And how was the after effects the next day? Not too bad or were you on the throne a lot?